In 1956, the poet Allen Ginsberg wrote the collection Howl and Other Poems. The following year, U.S. customs officials claimed that, due to its many references to illicit drugs and explicit sexual content, the book was obscene and seized 520 copies of the poem. A few months later, bookstore manager Shig Murao was arrested for selling a copy of Howl to an undercover police officer, and City Lights publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti was arrested for publishing the book. Over the course of the year, literary agents, publishers, authors, and the American Civil Liberties Union fought back and filed a series of suits in the California State Superior Courts.
Though Murao's case was dismissed, the case against Ferlinghetti continued. On October 3rd, Judge Clayton Horn released the court's decision and his opinion in the state's case against Ferlinghetti. Horn stated that in an obscenity case, the prosecution must prove the obscene character of the material and that the defendant, quote, "willingly and lewdly" committed the crime. Since Ferlinghetti published the book, both questions relied on whether Howl was obscene. The defense brought testimony from experts who argued that Howl had literary merit, presenting a social picture of the times and using language and descriptions relevant to its themes on the human experience. In his opinion, Judge Horn cited the U.S. Constitution's First and 14th Amendments and the California State Constitution's protections of free speech, finding that he, quote, "did not believe that Howl is without redeeming social importance."
Today, Howl is considered one of the great pieces of American literature and is synonymous with the Beat Generation, but Ferlinghetti's victory provided support for future sexually explicit material in American literature and a broader interpretation of the First Amendment.
